VLC systematically opening in 2 separate windows in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Since I installed Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, VLC 2.2.2 will systematically open video files in 2 separate windows: video in one, audio (equalizer sound bars) and controls in the other.

VLC is set as the default player, so I can simply click on files to summon vlc to open them (always in 2 separate windows, unfortunately). I made sure Tools > Preferences > Interface > Playlists and Instances were set to allow only one instance and one instance when started from file as suggested in other threads addressing trouble when opening several files at once, which is not my case.

This thread on Ubuntu Forums provides a workaround for the bug affecting 2009 versions of both Ubuntu and VLC, which likely won't apply to either in 2018 (I'll try if no more obvious fix is suggested). If this is just a "settings" problem, I don't know what it is, as VLC is pretty much unchanged from the default downloaded version. Any ideas?

Solution 1:

Strange thing: I tried playing several video files since the vlc purge/reinstall, and they came up in the dreaded dual-window style, but now with no sound.

I checked that audio was enabled in vlc (it was), and that at the system level, audio hadn't been set at 0, or muted (it hadn't).

So I did a search, and tried a proposed solution: reset preferences in vlc. I did, and noticed that Allow only one instance was now unchecked. I exited vlc, clicked on a video file, and bingo: a single window opens, with sound! I of course tried opening a bunch of random audio and video files to make sure this wasn't just a one-time occurrence, and they all now open as expected.

Not sure what resetting preferences achieved over reinstalling vlc, or if Allow only one instance being unchecked is instrumental, but it worked! Thanks to Robert Riedl for his time!

Solution 2:

I have had the same problem on Ubuntu 21.04,21.10 deb version vlc.

I tried to change Video Output setting and also I change Input/Codecs -> Hardware-accelerated decoding setting, after that, it works fine.

I use the nvidia proprietary graphic driver, so I chose VDPAU output and VDPAU video decoder. You may have to choose the value according to your graphic driver.

Actually it was not 100% ok, but mostly(almost 99%) vlc open only one window after this setting.